2013

Pacific Union College has been named a “Healthiest Company” by the North Bay Business Journal for the second time. The college received the award for its commitment to promoting wellness and an active lifestyle among its employees. PUC first received the “Healthiest Company” award in 2012, and continues to encourage employees to focus on health and happiness while expanding wellness program opportunities. The Business Journal gathered nominations over the summer and through September, finally settling on 21 companies and organizations that were honored on November 13 at the Journal’s 2013 Health Care Conference. The conference and special issue of the Journal draw attention to the “outstanding efforts of businesses across the North Bay in the critical movement toward wellness.” The companies selected for the award ranged from construction, education, banking, and technology; the healthiest companies were selected after a nomination and company survey process. “Millions of people spend at least half of their waking hours at work, so it makes perfect sense to make healthy choices a part of the workplace culture,” said Brad Bollinger, editor and associate publisher of the Business Journal. “The workplace wellness movement is unstoppable and is really a necessity if, as a society, we are...

Since the age of 10, Pacific Union College freshman Spencer Swetnam dreamed of competing in the world championships of his favorite sport. On November 2, his dream came true as he traveled to Taipei-City, Taiwan to compete in the 2013 Artistic Roller Skating World Championships. Swetnam and his partner Katelyn Rodgers represented the United States on the world stage in the team dance category. “The world championships are as high as the sport of artistic roller skating gets,” said Swetnam. “It is not in the Olympics for one main reason: Most people do not know about it.” Artistic roller skating is much like figure skating on ice, but with roller skates. The sport combines a careful balance of position, strength, and artistry in a single performance. A 2013 graduate of Portland Adventist Academy, Swetnam spent much of his senior year traveling to Boston to meet with Rodgers as they prepared for the National Championship held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from July 21 to August 4, 2013. The pair competed in the Junior World Class Team Dance Division. This division requires three components: two compulsory dances with specific dances and steps, an original dance with a routine danced to a required...

After finishing 3rd in league play in the California Pacific Conference, Pacific Union College’s Pioneers women’s volleyball team completed their season at the Cal Pac playoffs. The Pioneers fell to Menlo College on Friday, November 15. Menlo College would go on to defeat La Sierra and head to the National Tournament. After the playoff match, three lady Pioneers and their head coach Brittany Brown were honored with Cal Pac Conference Awards. In a highly competitive conference, the lady Pioneers received the most conference honors in program history. Leading the Cal Pac with 584 digs, senior libero Lauren Secchitano was named to the California Pacific All Conference 1st Team and received the 2013 Conference Libero of the Year Award. Setter Kailey Faust and outside Viridiana Gallardo were also named to the California Pacific Conference 2nd Team. Faust led the Pioneers with an impressive 884 assists and 112 digs. Gallardo led with 245 kills, and was second on the team in digs with 345 throughout the season. “Lauren Secchitano, Viridiana Gallardo, and Kailey Faust have all worked hard this season, and with the help of their dedicated teammates have earned this honor,” stated Brown. “All of these athletes and this entire team...

On Saturday, November 11, actor and producer Brian Yang screened the documentary Linsanity at Pacific Union College. The film profiles the career of NBA player Jeremy Lin from his high school years in Palo Alto to Harvard and then on to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Yang, a film and television actor who has been on the network show Hawaii Five-O, took time after the film to answer questions from the students and community members in the crowd. “The film goes back in time from humble beginnings to his rise to the top,” Yang said in his introduction of the documentary. “The message you’ll come away with is an inspirational story for all types of people.” Yang described the film as the “true, full backstory” of the many years of hard work and failure that Lin endured before his moment of success. Yang and his partners began filming three years ago when Lin was playing basketball for Harvard University. Though Yang and his partners first planned to create a small web series, Lin “rewrote the end of the story” when he was picked up by the New York Knicks and began playing at an amazing level. While the film profiles...

Pacific Union College began the 2013-2014 school year with the highest enrollment in 24 years. On October 14, the college’s census date, total enrollment stood at 1,678, an increase of 62 students over the 1,616 students at this time last year. The college realized both an increase of new students and growth in retention. Enrollment is the highest it has been since 1989, when the exact same number of students, 1,678, attended PUC. Significantly, the college saw an increase of 89 students attending PUC on the Angwin campus. There are currently 1,610 people pursuing degrees at PUC’s destination campus in the Napa Valley. “We are delighted to have many more students on campus and pray that each student will truly thrive at PUC,” shares Lisa Bissell Paulson, vice president for student services and dean of students. “We are already experiencing such a strong campus climate as students get involved in spiritual and social life! Student participation is amazing and we look for opportunities to continue to enrich the student experience at PUC.” A remarkable jump in new students fueled the enrollment increase. PUC was blessed to have 503 new students join the student body. The freshman and transfer students were...

With her medals displayed on the platform of the PUC Church, Mary Whipple described her journey to gold during the November 7 installment of the Colloquy Speakers Series. Whipple was the coxswain of the United States Women’s 8+ Rowing Team, leading the team to five world championships, a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and gold medals in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London games. Whipple’s presentation began with a video clip of her team’s victory at the 2012 London Olympics. The footage showed the intensity of the race, as well as the incredible precision and coordination exhibited by the American team as they crossed the finish line well ahead of the rest of the pack. Whipple’s presentation described the extraordinary teamwork and determination required on the journey to that finish line. As the team’s coxswain, Whipple serves as an in-boat coach and calls instructions to the rowers. Her job is primarily to unite her teammates, Whipple explained. “It’s my job to turn eight individuals into one person—one dream.” Whipple’s Olympic dream and involvement with rowing started out “innocently.” While a student at Sacramento Adventist Academy, the Orangevale, Calif., native joined a rowing team at a local aquatic center,...

The Pacific Union College iPhone and iPad app won the Best in Class award from the Society of Adventist Communicators at the Society’s convention in Salt Lake City, October 24-27. The app was recognized for usability, design, working links, and for being up to date. Nicholas Hubbard, PUC’s webmaster, developed the app as part of his work for the college’s office of public relations. “Mobile continues to be the main form of communication with prospective and current students. We see the trend and want to stay on top of it,” Hubbard explains. “Developing PUC Mobile in-house gives us a great deal of flexibility. From developing new features such as our upcoming Student Jobs feature, to updating our app for the newest OS update, or quickly fixing bugs that our users might have, we have the ability to quickly add or adjust our app for the best user experience.” Beyond showcasing college news, photos, and events, the app has numerous other features. These include maps of on-campus and off-campus locations, class lists, the Library catalog, a campus contact directory, and a real-time listing of what is being served at the Dining Commons. The app has been remarkably popular, with over 6,000...

Pacific Union College is proud to have been recognized by multiple organizations for providing exceptional return on investment in rankings that identify the colleges where degrees pay off the most. The recent rankings confirm that the college is fulfilling its mission of providing an excellent and affordable Christian undergraduate education that prepares students for a lifetime of service in the career of their choice. In July, Affordable Colleges Online (AC Online) ranked PUC 22nd out of over 767 California colleges and universities, including private institutions and state schools, analyzed for return on investment (ROI). The ranking demonstrates that students who graduate from PUC enjoy a greater earnings gap than students without a four-year degree; PUC’s placement in the top three percent shows that its alums earn more on average than graduates from most California colleges. AC Online’s ranking is based on net tuition prices and graduate’s average starting salary, and used criteria from national sources such as the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Further recognition came in September, when PayScale, a provider of compensation data, ranked PUC in the top 15 percent of colleges on its national 2013 College Education ROI Rankings;...

During the week of October 6, PUC welcomed Pastor Jose Rojas to campus as the speaker for Fall Revival, an annual week of spiritual emphasis. Pastor Rojas, a PUC alum and acclaimed speaker, inspired and electrified the student body for a solid week, leaving many individuals with the new resolution to devote more of their time to ministry and missions. Rojas delivered weeknight sermons before concluding with a special vespers on Friday night and two church services the following morning. The well-attended weeknight meetings followed the theme of “Believing God,” while the special vespers and church services were focused on the missionary aspect of one’s Christian journey. The special Friday night vespers was streamed live to 532 viewers around the globe. Rojas communicated how belief in God is one of the most important steps on one’s spiritual journey. He shared how this belief can be the catalyst to success in faith, school, health, and relationships. Using inspirational stories and emphatic examples, Pastor Rojas punched one point repeatedly: “First, you must believe!” Rojas also makes a habit of singing at the end of each of his sermons, concluding his message with a unique touch. Rojas emphasized the deep importance of missionary...

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, creator of over 25 films and owner of Journey Films, visited Pacific Union College on October 10 to address students at the Adventist Heritage installment of the Colloquy Speaker Series. Introduced by President Heather J. Knight as a “non-Adventist who is interested in how faith builds extraordinary beliefs and communities,” Doblmeier first visited PUC in 2012 to present his film The ADVENTISTS, a documentary that focuses on Adventists’ work in healthcare. Though he did not intend to pursue further projects about Adventists, his next film The ADVENTISTS 2, looks at Adventism’s international healthcare ministry. “The documentary explores the idea of how Adventism is a story of how people go to the far corners and take medical missions over the world,” Doblmeier told the students, staff, and faculty gathered in the PUC Church. After showing a short clip of the film, Doblmeier told students about his approach to religion, faith, and spirituality. He began by saying, “I find myself looking for God through the people of this world… this is my mission.” Doblmeier continued by describing how Christians can tend to force others into religion through “religious arrogance.” He explained that we should rather have our...